The Other Side of the Mirror

The voices in the dark shouted “Don’t let The Craftsman get away!” A cloaked figure, carrying a huge sac around his neck came bursting through the bushes and out the other side. A group of beings, all different races, and all in dark black armor, chased him through the woods and up the hillside. The path was treacherous for those men in armor. They definitely wouldn’t be able to keep up through this kind of terrain, all these bulky things could hope for was a block in the path, or a wrong turn, otherwise, their mission would be futile.

The cloaked figure raced up the mountain, breathing heavy and dodging every aspect of the forest. The armored beings were lagging behind now, and it seemed as if the figure would get away. Though, the path was ending, and the river was approaching, soon the figure would be trapped. The beings in armor didn’t completely know the territory, and were unaware of the river, as the figure approached, he realized where he was and slowed down. The end of the path was ahead, and the river rushed through the middle of the forest, cutting it as if it was the sword of mothernature piercing through the valley. The cloaked figure turned around and stood, waiting for the beings to turn up. The same figures came stomping out of the woods, the largest one shouting out commands, “Surround him, don’t let him get away, Omnitrax would be displeased if he escapes.” The cloaked figure let out a clearly visible smile through his hood. “You want this?” He said with a scraggly voice, “Your master wants this? Doesn’t he?” He took out the object, it was a mirror. The large, armored figure spoke up “It’s…just a mirror. Are you serious? Omnitrax sent us after a mirror?!” The being grumbled angrily at the thought of what seemed like such a useless item being so sought after. The Craftsman just smiled and said “Seems so.”

That was the moment, everything went into motion right there, the beings all charged, The Craftsman just stood, waiting for his moment, then it came. He leaped into the air and crossed over one of the beings, slipping out a knife with one hand, mirror still in the other, stabbing the knife into opening in the armor at the back of the throat and twisting, severely damaging the spine. The being went down as if his legs just failed him and collapsed onto the grass of the clearing in front of the river. The other beings seemed to take no effect on the fact that their friend just was killed and continued on with their business as usual, charging at The Craftsman again. He just smiled, put the mirror back in the sack and waited, ready to strike again, the beings all took their shots, and they all missed, The Craftsman using his athleticism to dodge, dance, and bend his way out of the blows, taking his own shots at them as they crossed his path. The numbers were still overwhelming, even to someone with The Craftsman’s skills, the fight was edging towards the opposition’s favor, and then it happened, the first hit. A blow struck The Craftsman in the chest. He stumbled to the ground, landing hard on his back. Smiling, he then got back up, taking the mirror out again. “So, you want this that bad huh? Did your master even tell you what it was? I bet he didn’t, he would never share that information with lackeys like you. Well, if you really want it that bad, you will just have to find it.” The Craftsman set the mirror on the ground and pulled out a vial with a green liquid and smashed it over the mirror creating a puff of smoke. The Craftsman just laughed as the beings leaped for the mirror and found nothing, the smoke dispersed into the air, leaving nothing but a small burn on the ground. “There we are. Now your master can go scour the universe looking for that. You will never see it again.” The beings then attacked him, The Craftsman fought back, this time with more intensity, not having an item to protect anymore, slipping knife blows into the men discreetly, entering any hole in their armor he saw. Though he looked to be in control, The Craftsman was slowly wearing down, the numbers were just too overwhelming for him, these were elite government soldiers, trained to fight someone like him, one or two would be easy, but the six or seven that were against him fought hard and slowly wearing him down, they eventually gained the upper hand. The Craftsman saw this, now scuffed, scratched, and bruised he stood up, smiling. “Well, it looks like this is futile. You have fought well, but, I do believe it is my time to be going.” The Craftsman let out a slight laugh and inched his way backwards towards the gushing river. Spreading his arms and letting himself fall back into the river, “Damn it all, you worthless scum, how could you let him get away!” those were the last words he heard before his body was engulfed by the flowing river, rushing his body downstream.

The rebel soldier waited at the side of the river, knowing what was on its way. The river seemed to slow down, warping itself around something, something in the center of it. A figure appeared out of the river and in a stream of water landed on the solid ground. “Hello Sir” The soldier said as the figure stood up, water dripping off the sides of his cloak. The Craftsman let out a little smile, “Hello Regor, take me to base, immediately, and contact everyone, we are having a rebel meeting in three days. Everyone must attend, some way or another, send out a message to all active members. Anyway you can.” The soldier gave The Craftsman an interesting look, but nodded. “Yes sir.” He sternly said as they walked up the hillside, towards entrance of the secret base.

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The mirror appeared on the outskirts of a town on a different world, a strange world, Earth. The mirror reflected a large burst of light into the air, reaching the height of the trees and exploding across the surrounding area. This was the effect of the transportation, the mirror was opening.

The mirror was found later that day, after it had dimmed down, by an old woman who thought it was an antique. The old woman ended up selling it to a girl, who said it was going to be a birthday present for a friend and had her hold onto it for the friend to get there. Another girl soon came and picked up the mirror. Where it has ended up since, or what happened is unknown by any other than that girl.

The area was clear, save for a few trees. It was a meadow just outside of Veramin. Inside this meadow were several large gray rocks, forming a loose circle around a burn pit that suggested many travelers stopped here to rest. There were a few trees circling this little meadow, leading into a bit of a wooded area that was very thin and not very long. If you were to look through the trees, you could see the other side with ease.

This place would've been silent, if not for the two pitted races that battled endlessly in its center.

A loud 'CRACKK!' rang clear through the meadow. A fist of dark gray was buried in a rock that now had cracks running through it, shattering as the fist withdrew. Basae clenched her teeth, staring at the man across from her. Basae was a Sto'Virge; or better said a Sto. She was about 5'9, with a lean body. If any man were to touch her body, he would see that she was hard as a rock- most literally. Her body was made of a dark foreign mineral, animated by a magical conductor called ether that coursed through the core of her body and into tiny veins in the stone body. She wore thin blue garments; a top that covered her breasts barely and a pair of breeches with dusted gold armor adorned on her hips, shins, and wrists. She had long hair of smooth pale silver, and burning orange eyes that glowed powerfully from behind a black thin mask of sorts that covered her upper face- save for her eyes of course. She clenched her fingers once more, and began to walk towards her opponent.

Arsenic stood opposite of her, her opponent. He was in his humanoid form, his upper body bare and his lower body clad in black breeches over bare feet. His body was firm and masculine, sculpted with shifting tattoos that moved eloquently over his skin. His eyes were black with blue irises, his lips pulled into a smirk, and his hair black and shortly spiked as though wet. All across his skin were small grains of sand, but not much. It was just enough to make him seem as though he had been laying on the beach perhaps. He balled up his fists and laughed, watching her step forward. Bui and Sto were pitted enemies on Virge. They were almost impossible to defeat, and battling one another was almost an eternal battle because it would likely never find a winner.

As Basae threw a hard quick punch that whistled through the air, it struck hard against Arsenic. It went into his stomach, where she could feel sand wrapping around her hand. She growled, yanking her fist back and pulling sand out with it. Arsenic laughed, as he stepped back, holding up his fist.

"Sae, you never give up. We as a people are better than you. My father didn't take rule for nothing, you know."

Basae drew a blade from the belt on her side- two blades. She latched them together at the hilts and began to swing them, moving quickly for Arsenic as he backed up slowly.

"Hold your tongue sand heathen, or I'll dice it from between your lips." She slung the blade forward, and it spun through the air like a saw. It missed the man by a fraction, and he laughed when it was stuck into a tree. He then lashed forward a handful of sand, and it fell into the stone woman's eyes. She hissed out in pain, opening her eyes to show a fiery orange ether behind the smooth lens of crystal. She rubbed her eyes and then ran forward, drawing her blade from the tree. But by the time she turned back to Arsenic, she only caught the faint glimpse of glittering ether dust and sand floating with the wind. He had escaped.

"Coward." She said, her voice echoing inside the stone chest and coming from her throat in a sound of multiple sweet feminine voices. She twisted until her blades were two and slid them back into the sheaths on each side of her hips. She then walked forward from the meadow, into the daylight. She stared up at the sun, and moved further. Finally, when leaning against a tree, she closed her eyes. And when she accomplished this; she was a statue. Even the greatest scholar would not detect life from the unmoving goddess of stone.

The city of Meratin was a large one, or at least most people said so about it but the truth was somewhere in between of what they say and what you think. The city wasn´t that large for Alex´s standards, seeing he managed to see to the devastation of far greater ones but it wasn´t that small either. One could easily get lost in the small alleyways that ran through the entire city and all looked alike. When Alex came here the first time he got lost in those damned things for three days until he finally came across someone to absorb and gaining their knowledge of the city, which proved to be really helpful in fact. Looking back at that time Alex only smirked at his previous self. Knowing now where to go and how to get there, he took the opportunity to take it easy. He wasn´t in a hurry and there were some things he needed to go through in his mind once again before he was ready.

The nostalgic hum of the city echoed in Alex's ears once again after many months. The recent news he received as the head of the Black Hand were disturbing at best.
Considered the best of the best, The Black Hand were a secret elite government Black-Ops unit that answered to no one but Omnitrax himself. Officially they didn´t even exist and even a rumour of them was beyond rare even in the highest echelons of the government and yet, they were here. Specialising mostly on information gathering, espionage and assassinations they rarely needed to expose themselves and openly engage the enemy but once they did, they always made sure no one knew. So far their reputation was flawless. No mission was left undone, no threat left unsilenced but the recent events brought a frown even to their leader. An outsider, from a different world that managed to fight his way up thanks to his remarkable abilities. Being the virus that “destroyed” his world himself, killing him became a seemingly impossible task. With physiology that no longer even resembled that of an human and unrivalled willpower he went through countless battles to get where he is now.

But where was he now ? That was the real question. He was standing in the midst of a pretty crowded street, his look blank staring at the sky, other people passing by him with a small distance a worried look on their face as if he was some kind of a sick animal just waiting to drop dead and spread some horrible disease into the air around it. Regaining his composure by shaking his head slightly, he begun to move towards his meeting place. It was rare for him to go on a mission personally but at the moment all of his agents at hand were occupied with their own assignments, he couldn´t even order anyone to do his job for him. But when he thought about it, he came to the conclusion that he´d be the one taking this mission anyway seeing as it was of the utmost importance.

He was to rendezvous with one of his informants in the city in a small pub called the “White Sheep” The letter he received from the man said there was something urgent he needed to talk to him about. Coincidence it came with the mission assignment ? Maybe, but Alex was a person who believed in coincidences so he decided to check things out himself. Once he arrived at the “White Sheep” he only casually set behind a sturdy looking wooden table in one of the darker corners of the pub and waited for someone to come take his order. After a while a waitress came dressed in a shepherding dress that was famous for this commodity. Alex ordered a glass of bear with an impassive look on his face. Once in a while he gave a small looksy around to see if there was no one that might be here for the “wrong” reason. After another moment the waitress came back and handed him the glass but there was something else, stuck to the bottom of the glass was a small paper, invisible to anyone since its colour almost matched that of the beer and wasn´t large enough to give itself away. Alex thanked and paid properly. The waitress walked away without a second look and Alex now concentrated on the task at hand. He looked inside the glass and grinned gently. “That witty bastard” he thought as the liquid inside the glass served as a magnifying glass. The letters were still rather small but they were readable, pretty much. With a smile on his face he drank the whole thing at one go and disposed of the paper discreetly.

After a while he arrived at the address that was written on the paper he got at the pub. As instructed he went to the back of a pretty much average looking house and knocked on the door three and then two times. After a moment of silence a voice came from the other side of the door.

“Slay, is that you?” a strong male voice said almost whispering.

Slay, was the name Alex gave to his informant. The man knew his way around and was cunning like a fox, but that was nothing new for someone in this business especially someone that´s been at it for so long but still Alex couldn´t just openly trust him with everything. The guy was something like a mercenary in the world of spies and the greatest problem with mercenaries is that if you can buy their loyalty, others can too.

Alex answered after a pause in a similar way. “Yes, it´s me, now open up, I don´t have all day” he said looking around making sure he wasn´t followed.

The door opened up a bit and a fraction of a face could be seen through the gap. The eyes on the other side of the door measured Alex from head to toe before finally the door sprung open.

“Hurry, hurry. We don´t have much time!”

"Hold still! Dammit you're a liability..."

The creature known as Xizzik writhed and wriggled on the operating table as another figure, dressed in a black hooded garb, tried his best to hold his arm down. The room was dark and claustrophobic, with the only illumination coming from an overhead lamp which shone down on Xizzik. It was also windowless, and had but a single metal door, set in an alcove at the top end of the table. Despite the aura of the place, however, it was utterly sterile; every floor tile glinted in the half-light of the lamp, every wall polished to perfection. When it came down to it, that was all that mattered.

"I - I'm sorry, Alrun," Xizzik hissed, "It's just habit." He scrunched his single eye shut and forced himself to stop quivering, so the hooded man could administer the injection. His other eye, like much of his body, had been replaced with a cybernetic implant; the set of throbbing red lights, along with his pale, gaunt skin and strange clawed hands, gave him a menacing look. In truth, Xizzik was of a cowardly disposition, likely to flee at the first sign of peril. Certainly no fighter.

"Well get out of the habit..." Alrun said in his coarse voice, as he pushed down on the plunger and sent the milky-white contents of the syringe coursing into Xizzik's veins, "...and fast." Alrun was tall and emaciated. His hand looked like five thin twigs that even made a clicking sound as they brushed against each other. And under the hood was a skull-like face, elongated and deformed, but in a graceful way. Regardless, he preferred to keep his identity a mystery when he could. One learned to live like that, as part of the Rebellion.

Xizzik quivered as the drugs began to do their work, then gave a shivering sob as terrible memories from years passed pushed their way into his mind.

"Are we finished now?" he queried, swallowing heavily and pushing himself into a sitting position.

"Aye. Go on, get out and get going." Alrun waved him away, towards the door, and Xizzik obliged, eager to escape the confines of the medical room. As he heaved the door open, Alrun spoke again. "Xizzik... I'll see you soon."

"Yes. Soon, Alrun." With a slight bow of his head, Xizzik left the room and entered the corridor beyond. It was similarly dark, were it not for a third figure standing just down the passage. Her entire form was surrounded with a bright blue glowing haze, which lit the whole corridor effectively. Though Xizzik could not see the face beneath the glow, he could tell that she was smiling.

"It is good to see you well, my friend."

Xizzik bowed again and made his way to crouch at her side. Though he was capable of standing on two legs, moving around on all fours was more natural to him, and took less out of him.

"So. Guesses as to the meeting?" he asked, as the pair began to wander down the passageway.

"Clueless." The woman's form gave a shrug, her blue glow shifting and making Xizzik's shadow dance across the walls. "It must be very important though. to be invited all the way from Meratin."

"I just hope we're not waisting our time." Xizzik said bitterly.

The two continued in silence until they passed through another metal door and into a large room somewhat reminiscent of a basement, with wooden steps leading to a trapdoor above. The room was full with various supplies - weapons, food, medical supplies, shelves of books and papers - and there was a machine at the back which made a loud hammering sound. Despite having been part of the Rebellion for a good few months now, Xizzik was still unsure as to its purpose. A few other people sat in silence around the place, all of them furiously pouring over various encoded messages.

"Caleb..." he began, before pausing, "...am I more hindrance than help?"

"Nonsense, my dear Xizzik," Caleb smiled invisibly again. "You know as well as I that the rebellion values your skills. And as for Alrun... well, he would say that. After all, he only deals with you when your sicknesses takes hold. He doesn't appreciate what you do out in the field."

Xizzik nodded, but said no more.

"You should get some rest before we depart, my friend. I'll prepare our equipment and our transport."

"Thank you, Caleb. I owe you a great deal for your kindness." Xizzik bowed once more, before turning and loping off towards his sleeping quarters. It would take him a while to find sleep though - his mind was preoccupied, turning over the possibilities of what would be revealed at the meeting...